Gloucester-Hartpury’s fixtures for their first season in the new Tyrrells Premier 15s have been released.

The side, led by former England international Susie Appleby, are making a two-tier promotion to play in the new premier women’s competition and will begin with a long trip to Darlington Mowden Park on Saturday, September 16.

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Their first home game will be against Wasps Ladies at Hartpury College a week later.

The competition will operate in a league format and the top four teams will progress to semi-finals played over two legs, culminating in a final on April 29.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has today announced Tyrrells as the title partner for the league, which is made up of 10 teams.

Clubs involved in the competition will benefit directly over the next three years from the RFU’s £2.4m investment.

Nigel Melville during his time as Gloucester coach

RFU director of professional Rugby, Nigel Melville, said: “The Tyrrells Premier 15s competition is an important step forward for women’s rugby to strengthen the foundations of the women’s game as it continues to grow in popularity.

“By investing at domestic level we can build a sustainable model to support the growth of the game at elite level.

“The competition will crucially expand the playing pool of players available for international selection which will enable us to reach our long-term objective of running dual professionalised 15s and sevens programmes and allow us to compete on all fronts at the highest level.”